I told you I would report back on how my neighbours are responding to Not So Nice in My Neighbourhood. So far all is quiet in the hood. Which could be a good sign or a bad one. For now I still get a friendly smile when I go for a walk.

We’ll see how the summer unfolds.

I did get some heat from my first article. I got my very first nasty comment on my blog. Then my own mother called me out on my Facebook page questioning my right to judge someone’s personal style.

As a blogger, getting your first negative comment is a big deal. It supposedly means that you have stepped up your writing to the point that you are willing to voice an opinion that not everyone will agree with. When your mom does it though you start second guessing yourself. The two incidents combined left me wondering “if two people write it, just how many are thinking it?”

The comments by Mr. Not So Nice were tempting to leave on my blog because, like my mom, he brought up the issue of personal style. Unfortunately, he was also pretty nasty about me spreading hate (insert irony here) and this is my blog so I don’t have to play that game.

Mr. Not So Nice and my mother both wrote that everyone has their own style and what one person likes might not be another person’s cup of tea. Who was I to judge?

They are right. 

That would be just plain rude and not very neighbourly either. I have no intention of calling out my neighbour’s personal tastes and style. That isn’t the point of this series either.

What I want to do is help homeowners from making paint mistakes. There is a difference.

Consider a house with a lime green front door. That door didn’t happen by accident. No one walks into a paint store thinking they want a green front door and comes out of the store with Benjamin Moore 2028-30 Tequila lime without knowing that is a bold colour. That is a colour choice. I might not personally love it (actually I love fabulous coloured front doors) but it is pretty obvious that a lime green front door is a colour choice.

On the other hand, a colour mistake is when I see a blue house with an undertone that makes the house look purple in the sunshine. The homeowner likely wanted a navy house but chose a colour like Benjamin Moore Midnight Navy instead of Benjamin Moore Hale Navy. Or the mocha house on the corner that looks pink every morning. Or like my last post where the trim and field was painted so randomly.

Those are paint mistakes.

They happen because a homeowner didn’t get the right advice from either the paint store or their painter. They didn’t get the proper help choosing paint colours and they probably didn’t get large samples of their colour choices to see what it would really look like. In the case of the bad transitions, the homeowners hired inexperienced painters that didn’t understand colour transitions and the differences between trim and field.

So yes, there is lots of room in painting for personal colour choice and some of my comments are just my personal opinion. If you love Midnight Navy over Hale Navy – great. If you wanted a pink undertone and got it – good. This blog probably isn’t going to be much help to you.

However, if you are getting the exterior of your house painted and are unsure of some of your decisions, you will find this series helpful. By seeing why colours work and don’t work and how to use them properly, you are going to have a lot more success with your own exterior house painting.

So Mr. Not So Nice and my mom – thanks. I’m glad I got to clear this up. I hope you keep reading and commenting but Mr. Not So Nice, could you be a bit nicer?